Twitter Hires Google’s Highest Paid Employee As Chairman

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Twitter on Tuesday announced plans to lay off 8% of its staff, and on Wednesday, it also appointed a new board chairman. The micro-blogging firm hired Omid Kordestani, formerly the chief business officer at Google, as its new board chair.

Twitter likely paid Kordestani a pretty penny

If we consider Kordestani’s remuneration at Google, it can be predicted that Twitter must have paid a large sum to get him on board, says a report from CNBC. Kordestani was among the first employees at Google. He quit the company in 2009 but returned in July 2014 as its chief business officer. The company rewarded him handsomely upon his return.

At Google, Kordestani’s compensation was nearly $130 million last year, according to a 2014 annual proxy filing. This made him the highest paid employee at Google for the year. Kordestani got a prorated annual salary of $236,500, a bonus of $6.5 million and stock awards worth over $123.5 million, the report says.

Taking a prorated salary for the last year as the basis, it is fair to assume that Kordestani made a minimum of about $500,000 for the 10.5 months he served Google this past year. A Twitter spokesperson noted that the company will make a filing with SEC within the next few days revealing Kordestani’s compensation.

A big loss for Google

Kordestani’s departure from Google was effective immediately. On being asked about Kordestani’s stock compensation, a spokesperson for Google declined to comment but said, “We’re excited for Omid and very happy for Twitter. Omid was instrumental in establishing Google’s business and helped us develop really close, longstanding partnerships across the industry.”

Leaving money issues aside, it is a bit of a surprise that Twitter was successful at luring away Kordestani. Silicon Valley widely hailed his return as a great move for Google. Last year, Re/code dubbed Kordestani “the soul of Google” in a story. Moreover, both Kordestani and new Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat won the praise of analysts for aptly handling the last earnings conference call in July.

Google’s shares are up by nearly 30% this year, while Twitter is down 20%. However, Twitter shares have shown some strength after Jack Dorsey took the top job a few days ago. Twitter also promoted its revenue chief, Adam Bain, to COO.

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